The USA sevens training squad are currently assembled in Chula Vista, San Diego, today ahead of the 2010/2011 HSBC World Sevens Series. I caught up with them all to see how preperations were going!

Coach Al Caravelli has named twenty players for this selection camp, with three others set to join the team before they depart for Dubai Sevens (3-4 Dec). Those three are Nese Malifa, Colin Hawley and Zack Test - who are currently in Europe on the Eagles XVs tour.

These players will add vital experience to the squad, and will hopefully remain injury-free with two matches left on their tour, against Scotland ‘A’ on November 19th and Georgia on November 27th.

Selection choices

Returning for the 2010/2011 season are both Matt Hawkins and Mark Bokhoven along with scrumhalf Shalom Sunuila and utility back Marco Barnard.

Three of the centres on display will be capped Eagles Mile Pulu and Roland Suniula (brother of Shalom) together with the exciting Kyle Marshall. The battle on the wing will be another interesting tussle as Jason Pye makes his return since injuring himself at the 2008 Hong Kong sevens. Pye has played in 9 IRB tournaments, including the World Games in 2005 and 2009. Also making a much-anticipated return is Justin Boyd, who will be looking to get back into the squad as soon as possible. Other wings with true speed include Gerson Blaise, Dmitri Efthimiou and Alex Ross.

Centre Troy Hall and youngster winger Rocco Mauer will miss out on camp through injury, while sevens star Thretton Palamo is still at University in Utah.

Matt Hawkins

Matt Hawkins is one of the most experienced players in the squad, with UR7s asking him about the recent positive changes in the program:

“Well, the first would be that when I first started with the sevens back in 07/08, we were ranked 14th or 15th in the world and weren't a core team. So becoming a core team and now being ranked inside the top 10 in the world is a huge stride forward.

Obviously the talent that is coming in each year is adding to the growth of our squad and pushing the guys like myself to push harder and give more than we did the year before, which is a great atmosphere. It's making us better players and allowing us to continually strive for better standards and set higher goals.

The two biggest changes have definitely been the Olympic decision, their support is going to be huge for us moving forward, and the second is the guys’ mental approach to tournaments now. We now know we can make finals and win them and that makes us very dangerous.”

Consistency will be key

“To be honest you never know what the squad will look like from tournament to tournament because of player availability and injuries. I'm hoping that we find a good mix of guys early and we stick together and grow stronger and stronger through each tournament. Over the last two years we've been able to get close to that and the results have been favourable.” Hawkins told UR7s.

Mark Bokhoven

We also spoke to veteran Mark Bokhoven – who has played in 17 IRB tournaments including the 2009 World Games.

“I think the team needs to find our own identity. We are not the All Blacks or Wallabies or Fijians, we are the Eagles, Team USA. We need to play to our strengths and embrace our varied sports backgrounds. We may play a little differently than the rest of the world, but we are good athletes that can beat anyone if we play together.

"At this upcoming camp we need to cement our game plan around the 12 players selected for tour, and realize that if everyone plays for the team, doing all the little things unselfishly, we will have a very successful, winning season.”

Sports physiologist & nutritionist added

The USA was hoping to compete in the Singapore 7s tournament as part of the Series preparation, but lack of funding did not make this possible.

“Many people have asked what impact the Olympic decision has made, but they aren’t aware of two aspects: Number one is that the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is the only Olympic Committee that is not government funded, with all its income from private donations. The second is that the USOC works in four-year cycles. This means that rugby sevens will technically have to wait for financial assistance in 2013.” – Caravelli told UR7s.

Despite that, the hard working coach is very optimistic about his squad, and has some exciting additions for this camp at the Olympic Training Centre (OTC):

“We have been given access to world-class resources in the form of the high performance team. For the first time we will have a nutritionist work with the squad, doing one-on-one consulting for the players, and teaching them how to shop and cook healthy meals (for when they return home). Most importantly the players will be shown how this translates into increased performance for the athlete.”

The USA will also have access to a sports physiologist – who worked with the national Ice Hockey, Volleyball, Water polo and Field Hockey teams - to name a few. He has been to six Olympics!

Hydration and lactic acid testing will also be performed at the OTC, which if managed correctly are vital for increased sports performance. State of the art recovery suits will also be available for the squad – which apparently are worn for only 10-15 minutes feeling like an hour massage on the body.

Caravelli also recently attended the Olympic Sports Conference at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Centre, along with every other Olympic sports team. This was a tremendous learning experience, and interestingly enough the All Blacks were also present.

On the sponsorship side, coach Caravelli would like to thank Nike for their footwear sponsorship. Watch the Eagles on the field sporting the latest Nike rugby boots, as well as Nike footwear off it!

Selection camp

The selection camp will be fairly similar to the regular USA ones, with most days seeing two-a-day sessions. The team will also be taken to the Coronado military base and spend half a day training with the navy seals. Following that gruelling workout the team will have a recovery day.

Caravelli also has a new type of fitness test that the players will be doing. Instead of the traditional beep test, a yo-yo type test will be used. This has four different versions: two level one’s and two level two’s. One is more for soccer, with the other being used for measuring speed, endurance and recovery time. The yo-yo name comes from the 20-meter sprint back and forth, followed by going around a cone 5 meters away. The other test – which has been used at Eagles XVs camps – is timing a player’s 40-meter sprint. Then the player does 10 individual 40 meter sprints at maximum speed, with the test measuring the average speed.

The USA 7s training squad:

James Aldridge (Spearhead Academy), Marco Barnard (*8, Unattached), Gerson Blaise (Spearhead Academy), Mark Bokhoven (*17, Denver Barbarians), Justin Boyd (*9, Unattached), Miles Craigwell (NYAC/Spearhead Academy), Matt Degutes (Chicago Lions), Dmitri Efthimiou (Mystic River), Matt Hawkins (*17, Belmont Shore), PJ Komongnan (*9, NOVA), Ata Malifa (*3, Glendale), Kyle Marshall (Boston), Taylor Mokate (Oklahoma), Zach Pangelinan (*6, OMBAC), Mile Pulu (*5, SFGG), Nu’u Punimata (Old Puget Sound Beach), Jason Pye (*9, Provo), Alex Ross (*4, OMBAC), Roland Suniula (*3, Unattached) and Shalom Suniula (*15, Brisbane).

Set to join the squad after the Eagles XVs tour: Colin Hawley (*2, Sacramento), Nese Malifa (*17, Glendale) and Zack Test (*10, Loughborough).

*Denotes number of IRB tournaments

The USA kicks off their 2010/2011 HSBC World Sevens Series in Dubai with New Zealand, Argentina and Zimbabwe in Pool B. In South Africa the USA find themselves again in Pool B, but with Samoa, Fiji and Namibia.

Dubai 3-4 December 2010 7 The Sevens
South Africa 10-11 December 2010 Outeniqua Stadium, George
New Zealand 4-5 February 2011 Westpac Stadium, Wellington
USA 12-13 February 2011 Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas

Hong Kong 25-27 March 2011 Hong Kong Stadium
Australia 2-3 April 2011 Adelaide Oval
England 21-22 May 2011 Twickenham, London
Scotland 28-29 May 2011 Murrayfield, Edinburgh

Photos courtesy of Monty Swiryn, www.CuestaPhoto.com

UR7s.com columnist Dallen Stanford played 7s for the USA from 2006-2009. He represented Belmont Shore at Nationals this year, finishing second in the nation. Dallen is an ambassador for the Tackling Cancer Foundation, and also writes for RugbyZone, Rugby IQ, Eagles XV and Pakis Corner.